France is different

If this dragonfly was six foot long, I'd be scared.

Since it is only about four inches, I find it a delight to watch, especially when all four jewel-bright wings are whirring.

They abound in this part of rural France, along with the varicoloured butterflies and moths. Other insects, large-size and with stings, are less welcome. Some are downright terrifying. There's one in particular that whizzes in like a B47 bomber. Bouncing off walls doesn't stop it for long, but at least it doesn't seem interested in biting humans.

We're slowly conditioning ourselves to the heat. Today was relatively cool at 26 degrees in the shade, and believe me, it takes some getting used to. The first day we dodged the sun by keeping to the shadows around the house, but we're getting braver. It is very quiet here, and we have a stream at the bottom of the garden. Actually, its less a garden and more a meadow, as you'll see on the photograph. There are fish in the water and ducks sailing along it. Grasshoppers and frogs leap out of the way as you walk down to the stream. Birds sing in the trees all around us, and there are cows and calves one field over.

People? Can't see any at all. Yet in spite of all this empty countryside, two vehicles managed to scrape bits off each other the other night at the cross road half a mile away. The road just insn't wide enough for two vehicles at once, and it seems neither would give way. Addresses were being exchanged as we drove by.

So, we've had a busy day. Up at six and out for a walk before eight in the cool of the morning, then out to the local boulangerie to buy bread. He was closed, so that meant a 25 mile trip to the nearest supermarche. I've edited ny first chapter again, and dh has stripped and painted a door. (He stripped the door, not himself. Not that he's shy...) We've had our hors d'oeuvre of tuna and olive pate on hot toast with an aperitif, and we look forward to main course out on the bolly when I finish typing this. (We would call a bolly a verandah, or a covered terrace, but here it's a bolly.)